Aana: The other Airbender
by paprika-chan
Summary: When Aang's younger twin sister finds the note Aang left, she stows away on Appa before he has a chance to leave. ZukoxOc
1. Prologue: The tip of the iceberg

Aana stood in her brother's room, his farewell scroll addressed to Monk Gyatso grasped in her hands. She didn't know how to react to what she had just read, a million thoughts swarmed in her head. How could Aang do this to her? She knew that he had been under a lot of stress, even if she didn't know why, but that was no excuse to run away and leave her behind! A tear rolled down her cheek. Frantically, she threw the scroll back down and ran out of the room, to where Appa usually was. It was just after sunset; hopefully she could get there before Aang left.

Out of breathe and a little light-headed from running, Aana came to where Appa was. "Oh thank god, Appa, you're still here!" a sigh of relief came out with the gasps from running. She threw her herself on Appa, hugging his fur. Appa turned his head toward her and gave an affectionate nudge and grunt. She looked around. Aang was nowhere in sight. Maybe he had changed his mind! Was he going to stay after all? She felt a small flicker of hope, but it soon faded. Appa had his saddle on and it already had a pile of supplies ready to go, which meant that Aang had just gone to fetch something real quick and would be back soon.

She couldn't let Aang go, but if she tried to talk to him he would just wave away her warning dismissively and if she asked to come with him he would leave while she was too busy to protest. That left only one choice.

Pulling back her long black hair, Aana grabbed hold of some of Appa's fur, climbing into the saddle. She didn't have much time to hide so she turned to the most obvious hiding place, under the blankets. She tried to make herself as small as possible, hugging her own small shoulder bag of supplies, so it didn't look like the pile of blankets was a breathing lump.

Footsteps could be heard walking up to Appa; Aana recognized them as her brother's instantly. It looked like she hid just in time. "There, there Appa, it'll be okay…" his tone didn't match his words, "We'll be back soon. I just need to clear my head." He sounded so broken. Aana wished her brother would tell her what was wrong… She heard Appa's fur rustle as Aang climbed onto his head. She drew her knees in closer. "Yip, Yip!"

The all too familiar sensation of taking off into the sky overtook Aana. Now all she had to do was wait until they were too far from home to turn back and she could come out of hiding. Then maybe she could talk some sense into her brother.

A while later Aana opened her eyes. She must have drifted off at some point. Wondering what had woken her, she lifted a corner of the blanket and peaked through. A horrible storm was raging on, the dark clouds loomed in the sky, foreshadow a debacle. Aang was struggling to keep to keep the reins in his hand as the wind thrashed them back and forth. Appa was thrown violently toward the ocean by a strong gust of wind. "AAN-" the water smothered her before she could finish calling out to her brother.

She was falling toward darkness. Every breath she took betrayed her, stabbed at her lungs, and only took her down further. The blankets weighed her down. Desperately she clung to Appa, but it was no use. The water was too strong for her too handle and she could feel her grasp slipping…

Right when she had given up a blue light, originating from her brother engulfed her and their surroundings. The water around them swirled into a ball and she could see a shell of ice forming around them. 'What's going on?' she thought? What was happening to her brother? She exhaled all the water in her throat just in time for the whole thing to freeze, and her entire world was devoured by darkness.


	2. The Boy (and Girl) in the Iceberg part 1

Aana: The Other Air bender

Book One/ Chapter one

The Boy (and Girl) in the Iceberg part one

**A/N- ok so I forgot to put a disclaimer in the prologue, so here it is**

**I DO NOT OWN "AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER." JUST AANA. SO YA. K THANKS.**

**Also, this is a story about Aang's younger twin sister, who eventually falls for Zuko. If you don't like, you don't have to read it. Also, I have another story about Roy Mustang's daughter for FMA, so if you like this one you should read that one ****. Anyway, please let me know what you think, and ON WITH THE SHOW!**

**Oh by the way- 'thinking'**

The darkness was subsiding, and all Aana could feel was the bitter cold. There was light, wherever she was, but she didn't dare open her eyes. She was absolutely certain she was dead, and was in no rush to join the spirit world. A few muffled voices caught her ear.

"You tell us! How did you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen!?" She didn't recognize the first voice, but she recognized the second one.

"I'm not sure…" Aang? Great. They were both dead. She heard a grunt. It sounded like Appa, when he wakes up in the morning.

"Appa! Are you all right?" she heard a small gust of wind just a few feet away, on the other side of Appa. Maybe they weren't dead after all. She tried to bring herself to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt like lead. "Wake up buddy!" He just grunted some more.

"Ah!" the voice of the boy she didn't recognize gave a small yelp of shock when he came around the ice and spotted the sky bison.

"Ahahaha! You're ok!" Appa yawned, just waking up.

"What is that thing?"

"This is Appa, my flying bison!"

"Right," the voice sounded skeptical, like he had never seen a sky bison before, "and this is Katara, my flying sister." Two unknown people?

Appa sneezed, sending a huge wad of bison buggers flying towards someone. Must have been the boy because she heard him throw a fit. Obviously, he had never been sneezed on before. "Uhayayayayayauh!" he threw himself on the ice, wiping off the snot with disgust.

"Don't worry! It'll wash out!" They said a few more things but Aana wasn't paying attention, she was trying to remember what had happened to her and her brother. As soon as she remembered, she wished she could forget again.

"I'm Katara, and the paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. You never told us your name." The girl sounded nice, and definitely calmer than her brother.

Aang tried to introduce himself, but he sneezed instead. His sneezes were always loud, and sent him skyrocketing…

Suddenly Aana had a coughing fit, caused by the last drops of water caught in her throat. She finally opened her eyes to see three people standing over her. Aang, a tall boy wearing a blue coat and holding a spear, and a girl that looked about her age and wore a similar blue coat to the boy's.

"Aana? What are you doing here?!" Aang's eyebrows were raised, mouth open, incredulous. She had forgotten he didn't know she had stowed away…

Aana sat up and stared at her older twin brother. She could feel her eyes begin to spill over with tears. She got up all the way, took a step toward her brother and flung herself at him, glomping his neck. "AANG! I WAS SO SCARED!" Aang returned her hug, even though he was still wondering where she came from.

The boy, Sokka, was starring at them. "Let me guess, this one flies when she sneezes too." They stopped hugging and turned to the other siblings.

"Of course I do," answered Aana, "not as high as Aang does though." Sokka face palmed. The girls face lit up, like she had just had an epiphany.

"You guys are air benders!" She looked so exited. Aana wondered why she was so surprised. It's not like Air benders were extinct or anything. Aang answered this one.

"Sure are!" Sokka's face grew into a larger expression of disbelief, and exasperation.

He started out mumbling, but his voice grew louder with every word, making annoyed gestures with his hands as he spoke and wandering toward the edge of the ice. "Giant light beams, flying bison, air benders…I think I got midnight sun madness. I'm going home, to where things make sense." As soon as he reached the edge of the ice, though, he had to stop. All that awaited him was a vast ocean filled with nothing but large chunks of ice. He frowned, Aana giggled.

Aang, being the better of the two twins, offered to give the two water tribe members a ride back home. Sokka, still a little miffed at Appa for sneezing on him, "gracefully" declined. "OH NO, I AM **NOT** GETTING ON THAT FLUFFY SNOT-MONSTER!"

Katara looked at him while already climbing on to the saddle. "Are you hoping some _other _kind of monster will just come along and give you a ride home? You know, before you _freeze_ to death?" Sokka opened his mouth, about to say some witty retort, but quickly closed it and glared at his sister. She had a point… Reluctantly he climbed on as well. Aana waited until everyone was settled and then air bended herself up beside the grumpy guy. He glared at her for a second, and then looked back down at his shoes.

Aang took the reins, ecstatic to take his new friends flying. "First time flyers hold on tight! Yip, yip!" Appa lunged toward the sky and for a few seconds he was in the air, leaping over the water! That was, until they splashed into the water. Aana frowned, confused. Sokka frowned even more, pissed off.

"Don't worry, he's just tired!" Aang explained, "give him a bit and he'll be soaring through the sky." He made a soaring action with his hand to demonstrate for the small group. Sokka replied with a sarcastic 'mmhm' and rolled his eyes, still refusing to believe that Appa could fly.

Aana yawned and glanced down at her brother, who was smiling at Katara like an idiot. She giggled to herself quietly. Katara noticed Aana staring and followed her gaze to Aang's smiling face. "Why are you smiling at me like that?"

Aang, continuing to smile, simply replied, "Oh, I was smiling?" Sokka threw his head back and groaned. Katara gave him a look then turned back to Aang. Aana turned to Sokka, getting bored.

"So you're from the water tribe in the south pole? That's pretty cool. Aang and I are from the Southern air temple." Sokka turned and looked at her, clenching his mouth shut. 'Don't answer her. She's probably lying. I bet they're both working for the fire nation.' Aana poked him, having not gotten a response. He huffed, and stubbornly ignored her. She poked again. He twitched. Poke. Twitch. Poke. Twitch. Poke. Poke. Growl. Poke.

"WOULD YOU STOP DOING THAT!" Katara and Aang turned around to see Sokka with his arms thrown into the air, his mouth wide open yelling at Aana and his face distorted into pure annoyance. All the while, Aana was rolling around laughing hysterically at his reaction. Aang and Katara snickered.

"I see they're getting along famously," Aang said to Katara.

Katara replied, "don't worry, Sokka's always grumpy," and they went back to talking while Sokka was trying to calm himself down.

A couple hours later, the sky was a beautiful indigo, the stars were just coming out. The entire group was getting sleepy. Sokka had already pretty much passed out and Aana was on her way, using the grumpy water tribe member as an unwilling pillow. Aang and Katara were the only ones left awake. Leaning over the edge of the saddle, Katara asked a question she had been dying to ask since she found out what Aang was.

"Aang, I was just wondering, the last Avatar was supposed to be an Air nomad. Do you know what happened to him?" Aang's expression transformed into one of discomfort for a split second before he awkwardly replied

"Oh uh…I _knew_ people who knew him, but uh, I didn't know him myself."

Katara looked down, "oh ok. I was just wondering. Good night."

"Night."

Aana snored and rolled over on Sokka again, who protested by squirming away in his sleep. It didn't do him much good though, Aana just leeched onto him, desperate for heat.

**A/N- okie Dokie. Sorry this is taking forever to progress, I was obsessing over the details. I promise the other chapters will go a little faster. Thanks for reading ****. Please review and tell me what you thought :D I should have the next chapter up relatively soon, probably by the end of this week. The same goes for my other story as well.**

**Thank you again!**

**paprika-chan 3**


	3. The Boy (and Girl) in the Iceberg part 2

Aana: The other Airbender

Book One: Water

Chapter one: The Boy (and Girl) in the Iceberg part 2

**A/N- Ok, so ive pretty much been following the first episode word for word but it's getting really annoying and taking forever. Also, I have a feeling that as readers, you already know what happened in the actual story and are here for the whole "What if" thing. Because of that I will be following the plot line a little more loosely. This is also because things would have been different had Aana actually existed in the show. And anyway, that's kind of the point of a fanfiction…**

**I do not own **_**Avatar: The Last Airbender**_

**Enjoy the story **

Aana woke up just in time to see Appa land on a large surface of ice, the entire ground, for as far as she could see, was covered with snow. There was a small village, with igloos for homes and a poorly built watchtower constructed of packed snow. A small crowd gathered around Appa. The little kids "oohed" and "awed," while the older villagers stared at the sky bison suspiciously. Katara slid down Appa's tail, straight up to an old lady that bore a striking resemblance to her. She excitedly explained what had happened while they were gone fishing. Sokka just grumbled and slid (actually fell) the same way Katara did.

Aana glanced at her brother, his face placid as he slept. She climbed down beside him, took one of his arms and slipped it around her shoulder. Leaping into the air she carried Aang down and landed without so much as a tap. She may not have mastered airbending yet, but she was still pretty good. The villagers stared at her and her brother but Aana ignored them. Instead she turned towards Katara, eyebrows furrowed. "Is there anywhere I can put my brother so he can sleep? He's really tired and needs to rest…"

Katara smiled. "Of course, just follow me. I have a tent he can sleep in. I think we could all use a few more hours of sleep before morning comes." She led Aana into a small water tribe tent and pointed out an area where she could put Aang. Gratefully, she set Aang down, covered him with a few thick blankets and set his glider down beside him. "You can sleep in here too of you want." Aana nodded, too busy yawning to vocally reply, and curled up beside her brother.

"Night Aang…" She mumbled, and fell asleep.

The next morning Aana woke up to find her brother just waking up beside her; Katara had just come in to get them. "Oh good! You guys are awake! I can't wait to introduce you guys to everyone! She grabbed Aang's arm and dragged him out of the tent. Aana just followed behind quietly, still a little unsure of the people she didn't know. Aang was always willing to accept anyone right away, but Aana was almost the opposite in that respect.

Outside there were about thirty people waiting for them, the same people that had come to see Appa the night before, only this time they brought their midgets with them. Aana grimaced. The thought of spending more than a minute with tiny snot-monsters did nit appeal to her. Katara continued dragging Aang until they were in front of the group. "Entire village, this is Aang and Aana! Aang and Aana, this is the entire village!" Aang gave the group one of his ridiculous grins. Through his teeth he whispered to his twin "_Don't just stand there, wave!" _Reluctantly, she complied and gave them the most believable fake smile and stiff wave she could muster.

The village stared at the two siblings, slightly intimidated, not knowing what to say, not knowing where to look. Aang turned to Katara, "uh, why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?" An old woman stepped forward to reply.

"Well, no one has seen an Airbender for a hundred years. We thought they were extinct, until my granddaughter and grandson found you two." Aang face distorted with confusion.

"Extinct?" He asked, but no one else heard him except for Aana, who was in an equal state of confusion.

"Aang, Aana, this is my Grandmother."

"Call me Gran Gran."

Sokka grabbed Aang's staff, looking rather puzzled. "What is this? A weapon? You can't stab anyone with this!" He held it up, examining it. Aana scowled at Sokka, irritated that his mind automatically jumped to violence.

Aang took it back and explained that it wasn't just any staff; it was a glider that airbenders use to travel the skies. He told them how it made it possible for him to control the air currents around him with airbending, and by doing that he could fly. Sokka cut in here, "You know, the last time I checked, HUMANS CAN'T FLY!"

"Check again!" Then, using the aforementioned technique, Aang demonstrated gliding through the air. Aana looked at her brother gliding through the air. She wished she could join him in the air but that was impossible; the little kids were holding her glider hostage, trying to make it do what Aang's just did.

The small village gasped as he was flying, the small children pointing, some of them laughing with joy. Aang did a few flips and circles and spins, but it wasn't long until he crashed into the poorly built watchtower. 'clumsy as usual,' Aana thought.

Sokka cried out in horror, "my watchtower!" Aana, holding back a laugh, put her hand on Sokka's shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, but your tower was old and out of shape, it was it's time to go. At least you know it was painless." She nodded solemnly, as if she were at a funeral consoling one of the beloveds of the deceased. Sokka brushed off her hand and ran over to the snowy remains of his watchtower, weeping over them until a large pile of snow fell and covered him completely.

Meanwhile, Katara and Gran Gran were talking about whether or not Aang and Aana should be allowed to stay in the village. Katara tried to convince her Grandmother that they should stay, but the austere woman remained uncertain. "But I sense a great wisdom coming from him! He could teach me waterbending!" Aana looked over at her brother, who was currently teaching the kids how to freeze their tongues on sticks. 'Yeah,' she though, 'wisdom.'

Sokka, at this time, was attempting to get the kids to go and learn their "warrior lesson" for the day. They obeyed reluctantly; a few of them even straggled behind just to talk to Aang while they walked to the designated "teaching" area.

In the middle of one of Sokka's all-important speeches about how since the men were all of fighting in the war it was up to the little boys to protect the village and yada yada yada, blah blah blah. They couldn't stop fidgeting and one kid shot up his hand to ask a question. "What…"

"I haff ta go pee!" Sokka slapped his forehead and sighed.

"All right…who else has to go?" The rest of the kids raised their hands as high as they could manage, including Aang.

(A few hours later)

The pure white snow crunched under Aana's feet every step she took. After about an hour and a half Aana got irritated with the villagers, the old women staring at her with suspicion, the young ones staring at her with wonder. While Aang had been off playing with the brats, Aana had been left to fend for herself in the see of unanswerable questions the women kept throwing at her. Were there any more airbenders? Where was the avatar? How did they get to the South Pole? Finally she had had enough and excused herself for a walk alone.

So, now here she stood, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, flattened outlines of her feet trailed back all the way to the small water tribe village, miles off into the distance. She let herself fall backwards into the snow, her arms spread out like wings and her dark hair pooled around her head. All she needed now was some time to think.

Her mind wandered to many places, some of them a little abstract, but eventually it took her back to that day. The day everything changed. It wasn't the storm she was remembering though. It was the calm that came first that occupied her thoughts now. She closed her eyes and let her memories take her back in time…


End file.
